the flying foden:
some of Beresfords old drivers are trying to sort a reunion do out .don’t know all the details just yet but if any body is interested i can find out for them
Don’t think that there will be many Beresfords drivers left. If I happen to see any will direct them to this site. It might be worth setting up a seperate thread so as not to hijack this thread too much.
Hi supercube i see steve smith,s name in your list,im sure its the same steve that i worked with in the 90,s at clifton sadlers,later to be unison out of blackwall.Steve lived at canvey island, had a few relations work at cliftons as well, one of them was called slim cant remember the rest i know steve mensioned he,d worked for promotor a really nice bloke.
hi nightowl, yeah barry ward, he is one i forgot to put on list. it was a long time ago and the old grey matter dont work too well these days.
talking about dave stagg, he was working at the depot in spain when we were doing repat cars for the aa and some insurance companies, there was a garage and caravan just south of barcelona and he lived there for the summer season when holidaymakers were breaking down and smashing them up, when we were loaded there we had to leave straight away or he would be on the phone to the office, when spain finished he came back to the uk and went into the office, that was when the job started going downhill.
also i understood george is/was south african, not sure though, i never bothered asking. i thought he was scary.
john mcfall the o/d had an “A” series erf when he first started, he laid a wooden plank across the engine cowling, hung some curtains up and slept for england, when he bought the 110 off promotor he had some real marathon sleep-ins. i remember when he had the erf we were in budapest, i got up and put the kettle on, gave john a knock, the curtains opened and there he was with a huge lump of cake in his mouth, not a pretty sight, he was 6ft+ about 20st and a beard that took over his face, but what a genuine bloke.
i must have left before your other half went on there, there was mention of someone called graham who i dont remember, he may have come after i left.
apart from dave stagg and joe alexander they were a decent crowd, even the boss peter was game for a couple of pints and a curry.
Ben9:
the flying foden:
some of Beresfords old drivers are trying to sort a reunion do out .don’t know all the details just yet but if any body is interested i can find out for themDon’t think that there will be many Beresfords drivers left. If I happen to see any will direct them to this site. It might be worth setting up a seperate thread so as not to hijack this thread too much.
not trying or wishing to hi jack this thread ben9.i know about 20 ex beresford lads so theres stil a few round . 
boyzee:
Hi supercube i see steve smith,s name in your list,im sure its the same steve that i worked with in the 90,s at clifton sadlers,later to be unison out of blackwall.Steve lived at canvey island, had a few relations work at cliftons as well, one of them was called slim cant remember the rest i know steve mensioned he,d worked for promotor a really nice bloke.
hi boyzee, you are correct there,steve did live on canvey, i hav`nt seen him for a few years now.last time i saw him he was driving for essex int. slim was steves cousin,mick mitchell, who was in a past life a bus driver, not the best job for an alcoholic though. i was weekended with him in west berlin one time,that saturday night was the longest session i can remember, he was a total nightmare.
the flying foden:
some of Beresfords old drivers are trying to sort a reunion do out .don’t know all the details just yet but if any body is interested i can find out for them
With most of my overland career being M/E,I didn’t get to meetup with or know many of the European drivers.On the few Italian trips I did,the only Berrisford driver I got to know was big Mick Salt.Two other guys I met and got to know quite well,but only on one trip,were Dennis Holford and big Jack Banbury.I met them at the side of the road outside Ankara on their way home from what I believe was the only M/E trip Berrisfords did to Teheran.
I was driving for Brit European at the time,and saw the pair of them at the side of the road so stopped to help.Turned out they were almost out of diesel and had no Turkish lira,only travellers cheques.
They did not know about the Telex motel a couple of miles further on,so I showed them the way there,but they could not get travellers cheques changed there either,so I subbed them some cash to get back to the Harem.
I heard some years ago that Dennis had died,and I believe Jack has also passed away,RIP boys,time to park up.
Has any one got a photo of a promotor scania DHJ 125 T my friend drove it on canutes
Nice to meet you Mushroomman
I’ve just asked Ron, and after a few minutes of the old grey matter working he came up with the name Graham Bertram. He heard that Graham died about 10 years ago. Apparently Graham had thinning hair and used to pull it from the back of his head over to the front! He also confirmed that George used to always carry a knife on him. I know Ron had a lot of time for George. I can’t remember meeting him myself though.
I’m surprised that nobody seems to remember my hubby Ron Hart. He’s medium height with blonde hair (now going grey). I think they called him Ronnie in those days. When he started for Promotor he used to pick up cars in Spain, and also did a lot of Yugo work. He ran to most countries and did a lot of the exhibition work to Poznan and Baghdad. He always preferred to run on his own and wasn’t one for sitting about so that could explain it. Later on in years the drivers used to call him Rocket Ron. He’s not into computers which is why I’m on here instead of him Could someone tell me if there is a way of printing off the posts on here for him?
I’ve also hunted on the whole of this site and haven’t managed to find one picture of any of our old trucks. We ran International for 20 years, starting out with a used Scania111 and then went on to Volvo’s. Most of them were Globetrotters, white with a three coloured blue stripe. We packed up 3 years ago when it was getting more difficult to compete with the rates being paid to the old Eastern Bloc hauliers. We used to go all over but did a lot of Germany and Poland.
We keep in touch with a lot of our old drivers, although one is out in Texas and two in Canada (still driving). Another one is due to go out to Canada shortly. We don’t blame them for going and the reports we are getting back from them are the conditions are much better.
Thank you all for your posts. I’m really enjoying reading them and I know Ron will too.
I’ve just managed to print off from here but it cuts out the right hand side of the print. Is there anyway I can print the whole posts please? Also while I’m asking how do you enter a picture on here? I’ve noticed the Img and URL but don’t know how these work on here.
Sorry for all the questions 
One of Truckerash’s photos from Trucking in the 80’s thread
nightowl33:
Nice to meet you MushroommanI’ve just asked Ron, and after a few minutes of the old grey matter working he came up with the name Graham Bertram. He heard that Graham died about 10 years ago. Apparently Graham had thinning hair and used to pull it from the back of his head over to the front! He also confirmed that George used to always carry a knife on him. I know Ron had a lot of time for George. I can’t remember meeting him myself though.
Hi night owl, sorry to hear of the death of Graham Bertram, even though it was ten years ago, Yes, it does sound like the guy I was refering to, thanks for the info. mushroomman
one of promotors trucks in the customs parking tehran. the drivers name was roger ?
hi nightowl, another couple of names just come to mind.
terry weeks
brian aldgate
alan sewell
chick?
barry holmes
any of these sound familiar?
nightowl33:
I’ve just managed to print off from here but it cuts out the right hand side of the print. Is there anyway I can print the whole posts please? Also while I’m asking how do you enter a picture on here? I’ve noticed the Img and URL but don’t know how these work on here.Sorry for all the questions
Nightowl,
You have 2 PM’s
Thank you Bestbooties. I’m still getting used to this site. Now I have to have a hunt for some old pictures to put up here 
Supercube the only name Ron can remember is Chick. He became road foreman at some stage, and then went into the yard loading the trailers. That was at Dunton Green.
The truck Ron used to drive was a Scania 111 registration FOO 160T if that rings any bells with anyone?
I bought a ex promotor scania 111 from scantruck purfleet in 1982 it was my 2nd unit i had chopped my old s83 foden for it the reg was WHJ190S and it served well for 3 years
I recall first meeting Steve Smith at Spielfeld. I think it was in January 1977, the Yugo’s had just changed the rules without warning and caught quite a few hauliers out. Prior to then you could buy your transit permit on the border pay your transit tax and go on your way.On that trip I and several others were sent back into Austria to await permits arriving from Newcastle. Mamma’s Resthauf done some very good trade over the next couple of weeks. So that is why I got to know Smiffy, he was very keen on the Goons as i recall as were a few of the other brits stuck their. We used to get some very funny looks from other customers during some of our sketches. There was also a record in the juke box that steve used to play over and over so that even now thirty years later when i here it i remember steve. It was Mississippy by Pussycat.
If I remember he was driving a Scania 140 for Promotors and i was driving a Daf 2800 for Frank White.
In the 80’s I used to do Quite a lot of promotor work when i drove for Mervyn King, they had lots of good work then and varied from Poland to Baghdad and many places in between.
There was another driver was it John Preece??
Regards Jamie
A scot Lost in the Valley’s
Nightowl…Found this pic a while ago on Trucks galore, Might bring back a few memories 
Going slightly off the Promotor subject, Did John Page work for you for a while?
LM
Lemonmouth
Thanks for the picture. It looks like it was taken near Derby as we used to do Toyota work out of there.
I’ve just spent ages scanning some pictures but still haven’t got round to uploading them yet. Yes John Page did work for us for quite a long time. One of the pictures I’ll put up was the front of our brochure which has a picture of John. Is he still down in Dover?
We had two old Promotor drivers work for us over the years. One was Peter Howard and another was Paul (I’ve forgotten his surname). I’ve found a picture of a Promotor truck MVX 519V that had gone off the road in Yugo. It was empty at the time and was on its way back from Baghdad. Hopefully I’ll get the pictures up soon.